شمس العلماء عبدالرحمان شاطرؔ مرحوم
دکن ٹائمز مدراس میں یہ پڑھ کر بہت افسوس ہوا کہ مدراس کے مشہور و ممتاز فلسفی شاعر مولانا شاطرؔ کا وسط اپریل ۱۹۴۳ء میں انتقال ہوگیا۔
ارکاٹ احاطۂ مدراس میں اسلامی علم و تمدن کی فراموش شدہ تاریخ کا ایک ورق ہے، نواب ارکاٹ کا محل ارکاٹ کے جنگی خاتمہ کے بعد خود شہر مدراس ہے، شمس العلماء عبدالرحمان شاطر اسی برج فلکی کے آفتاب تھے، عمر ستر کے قریب ہوگی، اردو، عربی، فارسی اور انگریزی زبانوں سے واقف تھے، نواب صاحب ارکاٹ کے سکریٹری بھی تھے اور مدراس ہائیکورٹ میں مترجم بھی رہے تھے، گو وطن مدراس تھا، مگر ۱۹۰۱ء اور ۱۹۰۳ء میں حیدرآباد دکن کے بزم علمی میں اس کے شریک تھے، جب مولانا شررؔ اور داغؔ اور گرامیؔ حیدرآباد کی زینت تھے، وہ ان کی مجلسوں میں شریک ہوتے تھے اور ان سے اپنے ذوقِ ادب کی پرورش کرتے تھے اور اسی زمانہ سے وہ مولانا کے قریب رہنے والوں اور قریب سے جاننے والوں میں تھے اور ان کی وہی محبت تھی جو حضرت الاستاذ کی وراثت میں مجھے ملی تھی۔
عبدالرحمان مرحوم شاعر تھے، شاطرؔ تخلص کرتے تھے، اشعار حکیمانہ اور فلسفیانہ کہتے تھے، قطعات، رباعیات اور قصائد موزوں کرتے تھے، جدید سائنس اور فلسفہ کے مسائل کو اسلامی الٓہیات سے تطبیق دیتے تھے، زبان سخت تھی اور مشکل الفاظ کے استعمال سے ان کو پرہیز نہ تھا، ان کی سب سے مشہور فلسفیانہ نظم ’’اعجازِ عشق‘‘ ہے، جو ایک طویل رائیہ قصیدہ ہے جس میں جدید و قدیم فلسفیانہ مسائل و آراء سے الہیات اسلامیہ کی تفسیر و تشریح کی ہے یہ نظم ۱۹۰۴ء میں لکھی گئی تھی اور اس زمانہ کے تمام اکابر و مشاہیر مولانا حالی،مولاناشبلی، مولانا نذیر احمد، مولوی ذکاء اﷲ خاں، نواب عمادالملک، مولوی سیداکبر حسین، پروفیسر عبدالغفور شہباز، امجد...
Nation-building is an evolutionary socio-political process. It not only provides security, dignity and ownership to a community, but also ensures democratic participation of people within the state to claim rights and perform duties. It enables a state to defend its sovereignty, achieve economic goals, and protect national interests at regional and global levels. Since 9/11 incident, terrorism has become a global challenge. To counter this menace Pakistan also aligned and provided land routes to foreign forces to get access to a landlocked Afghanistan. Across the Pak-Afghan border, through the tribal belt known as FATA, terrorism has spilled over Pakistan. The exclusive status of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in the past seventy years of Pakistan’s history, had deprived fundamental rights to the people of FATA. These tribal areas were governed by a separate law known as Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) made by the British in 1901. This law has proved as the main obstacle in bringing FATA in to the mainstream of Pakistan. After examining the historical and geographical aspects of FATA, the article shows how FATA remained outside the nation-building process in Pakistan. In this connection it seeks to see the position of FATA in the constitutions of Pakistan, including state initiatives to own this western belt and obstacles faced in merging FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). It narrates the events that led to the merger of FATA with the KPK and high lights future challenges as well. It recommends that FATA’s merger would help establish a strong line of defence against terrorism. ______
A multiple case study design was used to investigate the nature of changes in teachers' thinking about teaching and learning of mathematics during a mathematics VT (Visiting Teacher) program. The VT program is a two-month professional development program for teachers offered by the Institute for Educational Development. The fieldwork of the study was carried out during the entire period that the VT program was going on. The researcher was a participant observer in the program and used the observations, interviews, informal conversations and documents to gather data from four participants who served as the study sample. The study found that the VTs began with limited notions of the nature of mathematics, how mathematics should be taught and how children learn. During the program, there was evidence of significant changes in their thinking. For example, two of the VTs began to make links between areas of mathematics and began to develop a deeper understanding of the concepts. One VT's thinking changed markedly in relation to students' cognition and began to question how students learn. One of the VTs moved from a formalized perception of mathematics to an awareness of how mathematics is generated. Several themes emerged from a cross-case analysis. First, there was evidence of tacit learning, that is, changes in the teachers' thinking that the teachers did not recognize or acknowledge. Next, although teachers' thinking had changed, their epistemological constructs remained intractable, which may have led to a lack of awareness of changes in their thinking. Then, a factor that colored the perceptions of the VTs thinking was the challenges in their context. Lastly, all the four participants developed confidence, which may have an emancipatory nature. While the confidence developed in various forms, all acknowledged it to be a result of the environment in the program. The implications of the study are discussed in the end, together with recommendations and suggestions for further research.